Blessed be God

Blessed be God, who uses the common and ordinary to be the bearers of his promises, and reminders for us of his unswerving and all-encompassing devotion to us.

Blessed be God, therefore, for water...

for the Water of Life.

“Ho! All who are thirsty, come to the waters” says Isaiah.

Remember that just as sure as the rain comes down from heaven and waters the earth, so will the Word of the Lord come upon us and do what God wills.

Remember each time we use water day by day for washing or nourishing ourselves, and even more particularly, each time we use or recall the use of water here in the gathered community of the church, that it is in the union of water and God's Word that Good News comes to us.

Blessed be God for his Word that breaks the silence of death, opening new life for Jesus and the anticipation of new life for us.

Remember the whole story that we have rehearsed this night, from the beginning of creation all the way to its central point in Christ Jesus.

Remember that at our Baptism, Jesus added us to that story of his, and promises never to erase us from his conversation with the Father.

“I will make with you an everlasting covenant,” says the Lord through the prophet,

“and a witness to the nations.”

Blessed be God, who sees our barrenness, our helplessness, our hunger, and sets before us the first course of the Great Banquet, with the Bread of Life with its hope and promise.

“Listen carefully to me,” says the prophet, “and eat what is good.”

“Your holy truth is the word that rescues me,” sings the hymn-poet.

“Give me to eat and live with you above:

Teach me to love your truth, for you are love.”[LBW#235.2]

Remember the prophet Ezekiel who was commanded to eat the scroll presented to him [Ezekiel 2:8ff] and thus the Word of God would become fully a part of him.

Remember the work of prophets and apostles, whose chief work is always to give to us a full diet of the Word, to strengthen us for sharing the word with any who will receive it. [Ezekiel 33, 1 Thessalonians 2, et al].

Blessed be God for the Light that fills the darkness, the Light that turns this place and this assembly into an oasis of light even in the middle of the darkness of the night outside.

Remember the Good News that enlightens us, pardoning sin, renewing community that has been fractured, revealing God's thoughts that are far beyond our thoughts.

Remember this night's light as a sign of what will happen on that great and final day, when all of the darkness of sin and death is at length banished forever.

Blessed be God, creator of all that is.: the water of life, the word of forgiveness, the bread of the covenant, the light of the world.

Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.